
Schmidt Vocal Institute







2020 Schmidt Vocal Competition
Each year Miami University hosts the Schmidt Vocal Competition for talented High School singers. Prof. Mari Opatz-Muni has been tapped as an adjudicator and Prof. Ben Smolder will offer an online Master Class for this year’s competition. Due to COVID-19, the competition is being offered virtually, with the Awards Ceremony and Master Class being held LIVE on YouTube on Saturday, October 31, 2020 at 1pm ET. Not only do singers have the opportunity to showcase their talent and win cash awards, but should they place among the top three singers they may be eligible for a $4,000 matching scholarship to attend Miami University as well as other scholarship opportunities. Considering Miami? Don’t miss this opportunity!
For this year’s Virtual Competition hosted by Miami there are three key dates to be aware of:
Schmidt Vocal Institute
The Schmidt Vocal Institute (SVI) is a program developed and funded by the William E. Schmidt Foundation and directed by Miami University alumna Linda McAlister (MM '01). The Schmidt Foundation has strong roots in the Miami University arts programs, supporting the William E. Schmidt Youth Vocal Competition and contributing to scholarships for students in the Miami University College of Creative Arts.
About the William E. Schmidt Foundation
As part of its mission the William E. Schmidt Foundation provides support and encouragement to youth in the arts. Annually the Foundation provides scholarships and support to over one hundred and fifty students in the arts.
Previous Years
SVI 2018
June 19–July 1, 2018
Miami University
2017 Guest Faculty
(additional faculty to be announced)
Julie Gunn
Julie Gunn is a pianist, educator, and music director. She has performed on many of North America’s most prestigious recital series, including the Aspen Festival, Boston’s Celebrity Series, the Carnegie Hall Pure Voice Series, the Cincinnati Chamber Music Society, the Cliburn Foundation, the Dallas Opera, the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Lincoln Center Great Performers, Manhattan’s Café Carlyle, the Metropolitan Opera Summerstage, Notre Dame’s DeBartolo Center, the Ravinia Festival, St. Paul’s Schubert Club, San Francisco Performances, the Sydney Opera House, Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall, University of Chicago Presents, Washington’s Vocal Arts Society, the 92nd Street Y, and the United States Supreme Court. She has been heard in recital with William Burden, Richard Croft, Elizabeth Futral, Isabel Leonard, Stefan Milenkovich, Kelli O’Hara, Mandy Patinkin, Yvonne Gonzales Redman, Michelle De Young, the Pacifica and Jupiter Quartets, and her husband and artistic partner Nathan Gunn. In the upcoming season she looks forward to recitals and cabarets at the Interlochen Center for the Performing Arts, the DeBartolo Center, Vanderbilt University, Thomasville, GA, Western Michigan University, the McCallum Theater for the Performing Arts, and the Wallis Annenberg Center in Beverly Hills.
Director of Lyric Theatre Studies at the University of Illinois, she produces three mainstage operas or musical theatre works a year at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. A faculty member at the School of Music, she enjoys teaching singers, pianists, chamber musicians and songwriters, and conducting new works and musical theatre. She has given master classes at universities and young artists’ programs all over the United States, including the Aspen Festival, the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, the Houston Grand Opera Studio, the Interlochen Center for the Arts, the Metropolitan Opera Guild, Opera Theatre St. Louis, the Ryan Young Artists’ Program, the Santa Fe Opera, Ravinia's Steans Institute. She enjoyed tenures as artist-in-residence at Cincinnati Opera and the Glimmerglass Festival. She is the founder of the Illinois School of Music Academy, a program for talented pre-college chamber musicians and composers.
Dr. Gunn enjoys working at the intersection of different disciplines and collaborates with artists in the fields of theatre, dance, and design whenever possible. She has served as a coach or conductor at Chicago Opera Theater, Highlands Opera Studio, the Metropolitan Opera Young Artist Program, Opera North, Opera Theater St. Louis, Southern Methodist University, Theaterworks!, and Wolf Trap Opera, She is committed to new works and in recent seasons has been part of several world premieres, as a co-producer, a pianist, or as a conductor: Twilight Butterfly (Thomas), Dooryard Bloom (Higdon), Polly Peachum (Scheer/Van Horn), Variations on a Summer’s Day (Meltzer,) Letters from Quebec to Providence in the Rain (Gill,) and Bhutto (Fairouz.) She works with Beth Morrison Projects and American Opera Projects to produce workshops and academic premieres of new operas.
A member of ASCAP, she is the author of many arrangements of songs for chamber groups and orchestras. Her arrangements have been heard at Carnegie Hall, Chicago’s Symphony Center, the DeBartolo Center, Ithaca College, Interlochen, the Kennedy Center, the Krannert Center, London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, and in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Nathan Gunn
Nathan Gunn has made a reputation as one of the most exciting and in-demand baritones of the day. He has appeared in internationally renowned opera houses such as the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Royal Opera House, Paris Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, Glyndebourne Opera Festival, Theater an der Wien, Teatro Real in Madrid, and the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie. His many roles include the title roles in Billy Budd, Eugene Onegin, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and Hamlet; Guglielmo in Cosí fan tutte, the Count in Le Nozze di Figaro, Malatesta in Don Pasquale, Belcore in L’Elisir d’Amore, Ottone in L’incoronazione di Poppea, Tarquinius in The Rape of Lucetia, Danilo in The Merry Widow, and The Lodger in The Aspern Papers.
A noted supporter of new works, Mr. Gunn most recently created the role of Inman in Jennifer Higdon's Cold Mountain at the Santa Fe Opera. He also created the roles of Sid Taylor in Jake Heggie's Great Scott, James Dalton in Iain Bell's The Harlot's Progress at the Theater an der Wien, Yeshua in Mark Adamo’s The Gospel of Mary Magdalene at the San Francisco Opera Paul in Daron Hagen’s Amelia at the Seattle Opera, Alec Harvey in André Previn’s Brief Encounter at the Houston Grand Opera, Father Delura in Peter Eötvös’ Love and Other Demons at the Glyndebourne Opera Festival, and Clyde Griffiths in Tobias Picker’s An American Tragedy at the Metropolitan Opera. Because of this dedication to new works, Mr. Gunn held the title of Director of the American Repertoire Council at the Opera Company of Philadelphia, a steering council that focused on advancing the company’s American Repertoire Program which was committed to produce a new American work in 10 consecutive seasons. Mr. Gunn is working on a number of creative projects that will premier over the next three seasons, in which he is a collaborating artist with the creative teams. These include projects with producing companies such as the English National Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, and Beth Morrison Projects, and are created with some of today’s leading and cutting edge composers.
Also a distinguished concert performer, Mr. Gunn has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Münchner Rundfunkorchster, and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. The many conductors with whom he has worked with include, Sir Andrew Davis, Sir Colin Davis, Christoph von Dohnányi, Christoph Eschenbach, Alan Gilbert, Daniel Harding, James Levine, Kurt Masur, Kent Nagano, Antonio Pappano, David Robertson, Donald Runnicles, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Robert Spano, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Mark Wigglesworth.
A frequent recitalist, Mr. Gunn has been presented in recital at Alice Tully Hall and by Carnegie Hall in Zankel Hall. He has also been presented by Roy Thomson Hall, Cal Performances, the Schubert Club, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the Vocal Arts Society in Washington, DC, the University of Chicago, the Krannert Center, the Wigmore Hall, and the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie. As a student, he performed in series of recitals with his teacher and mentor John Wustman that celebrated the 200th anniversary of Franz Schubert’s birth.
Mr. Gunn has recently ventured outside the standard opera repertoire with appearances in performances of the the title role in Sweeney Todd with the Houston Grand Opera, Camelot and Carousel with the New York Philharmonic (both broadcasted on PBS) and Show Boat at Carnegie Hall and the Lyric Opera of Chicago. He also appeared in the New York Philharmonic’s 80th birthday gala celebration for Stephen Sondheim and appeared with the orchestra in an evening of Broadway classics with Kelli O’Hara. Other engagements have included appearances with Mandy Patinkin in Rochester, the Krannert Center the Ravinia Festival and on tour in Australia and New Zealand, a series of cabaret shows at the famed Café Carlyle in New York City and at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Orange County, special guest artist in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s annual Christmas with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square, and a performance of Sting and Trudie Styler’s work, Twin Spirits in the Allen Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Mr. Gunn’s solo album, Just Before Sunrise, was released on Sony/BMG Masterworks. Other recordings include the title role in Billy Budd with Daniel Harding and the London Symphony Orchestra (Virgin Classics), which won the 2010 Grammy Award; the first complete recording of Rogers & Hammerstein’s Allegro (Sony’s Masterworks Broadway), Peter Grimes with Sir Colin Davis and London Symphony Orchestra (LSO Live!) which was nominated for a 2005 Grammy Award, Il Barbiere di Siviglia (SONY Classics), Kullervo with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (Telarc), and American Anthem (EMI). He also starred as Buzz Aldrin in Man on the Moon, an opera written specifically for television and broadcast on the BBC in the UK. The program was awarded the Golden Rose Award for Opera at the Montreux Festival in Lucerne.
This season, Mr. Gunn returns to the Theater an der Wien as the title role in Don Giovanni, makes his debut at the Netherlands Opera in the world premiere of Mohammed Fairouz' The New Prince based on Machiavelli's The Prince, joins the New York Pops for the opening of their annual Carnegie Hall concert series, and appears in recital in Tulsa, Ft. Worth, George Washington University in St. Louis, and at the Krannert Center in Champaign, IL.
Mr. Gunn was the recipient of the first annual Beverly Sills Artist Award, and was awarded the Pittsburgh Opera Renaissance Award. He is an alumnus of the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artists Program and was a winner of the 1994 Metropolitan Opera National Council Competition. Mr. Gunn is also an alumnus of the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana where he is currently a professor of voice and the General Director of the Lyric Theater @ Illinois. Nathan is a partner in the Los Angeles City Club, RVCC, which is a forward thinking analog space for artists and entrepreneurs changing the downtown of Los Angeles.
Sylvia McNair
Two-time Grammy Award winner and regional Emmy Award winner Sylvia McNair’s three-decade career has spanned the musical realms of opera, oratorio, cabaret, and musical theater. Her journey has taken her from the Metropolitan Opera to the Salzburg Festival, from the New York Philharmonic to the Rainbow Room, from the pages of The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal to the London Times and the cover of Cabaret Scenes. A soloist multiple times with nearly every major opera company and symphony orchestra in the world, this songbird has flown the classical coop, finding new sides to the work of Gershwin, Porter, Bernstein, and Sondheim.
This flight has included numerous pops appearances with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, and the Pittsburgh Symphony, among others. A review of her performance with Marvin Hamlisch and the Milwaukee Symphony enthused: “… she is that rare opera type who really gets the popular song. She reined in the vibrato and played to the microphone perfectly. Her matchless enunciation not only delivered the words and their sentiments, but also helped to etch the rhythms. Her wonderfully pure ‘Summertime,’ purged of all diva carrying-on, is among the best I’ve ever heard.” (Third Coast Digest)
Sylvia’s most striking performance invitations include singing the Bach B-minor Mass with the Vienna Philharmonic for Pope John Paul II at The Vatican (2000) and a recital for the U.S. Supreme Court by special request of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor (1998), and two performances with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
Her engagements of the past decade reflect her passionate new direction: ten seasons at the Ravinia Festival performing with Broadway legends John Raitt, George Hearn and Brian Stokes Mitchell; a three-season national tour of Gershwin’s ‘Here To Stay’ with pianist Kevin Cole and many of the country’s top orchestras; musical theater productions of ‘Most Happy Fella’ (Ravinia 2007), ‘Camelot’ (Ravinia 2009), ‘A Little Night Music’ (Indiana Repertory Theater 2013) and performances of her one-woman show ‘Subject To Change!’ from New York to San Diego and Chicago to Palm Beach. After her opening at the famed Oak Room of the Algonquin, critic Rex Reed swooned, “I could get used to this kind of ecstasy.”
In 2016, Sylvia’s newest recording, Subject to Change!, a cabaret show about her life in music, recorded at the Aspen Festival, will be released. This release is the latest in a discography of more than 70 recordings ranging from Mozart arias with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St.-Martin-in-the-Fields, to the music of Jerome Kern and Harold Arlen with pianist Andre Previn. In 2011, Sylvia released a Christmas CD, Peace, which sold out its first run in a matter of weeks. In 2012, Romance, a disc of Latin jazz standards was released to a rave review from Fanfare Magazine’s Lynn Rene Bayley: “… here the record is, and it’s fabulous. In fact, it’s the biggest surprise of its kind I’ve encountered since Diana Ross’s live album of Billie Holiday standards.”
A proud Buckeye from Mansfield, Ohio, Sylvia earned a Masters degree with Distinction from the Indiana University School of Music. She received honorary doctorates from Westminster College (1997) and Indiana University (1998), the Ohio Governor’s Award for Outstanding Achievement in Arts and Entertainment (1999), the Indiana Governor’s Arts Award (2011).
Brian Zeger
Widely recognized as one of today’s leading collaborative pianists, Brian Zeger has performed with many of the world’s greatest singers including Marilyn Horne, Deborah Voigt, Anna Netrebko, Susan Graham, René Pape, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Frederica von Stade, Piotr Beczala, Bryn Terfel, Joyce DiDonato, Denyce Graves and Adrianne Pieczonka in an extensive concert career has taken him to the premiere concert halls throughout the United States and abroad.
His new recordings released this season include Preludios - Spanish songs with Isabel Leonard- and a recording of Strauss & Wagner lieder with Adrianne Pieczonka, both for the Delos label. Last season Delos released Dear Theo: 3 Song Cycles by Ben Moore (Delos) with Paul Appleby, Susanna Phillips and Brett Polegato.
Recent concert highlights have included recitals with Deborah Voigt, collaborations with Susan Graham at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and at Carnegie Hall; recitals with Anna Netrebko at the Vilar Performing Arts Center, with tenor Paul Appleby as part of the Bard Music Festival and at the Schubertiade Festival with Adrianne Pieczonka.
His upcoming season includes recitals with Adrianne Pieczonka; a recital CD with mezzo Jamie Barton and two concerts where he is both pianist and curator: Juilliard Songfest at Alice Tully Hall and Pergamon: The Romantic Obsession at Metropolitan Museum of Art with soprano Susanna Phillips and bass Shenyang. He will also take part in a celebration of the songs of Ben Moore for Cliburn Concerts in Fort Worth with baritone Ed Parks and other artists.
Chamber music appearances include the Bard Music Festival, and the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival with the Jupiter String Quartet as well the Frankly Music series in Milwaukee. and and Quartet at the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival.
In addition to his distinguished concert career, he also serves as Artistic Director of the Vocal Arts Department at The Juilliard School and the Executive Director of the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artists Development Program. Previously he had served for many seasons as the director of the vocal program at the Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival as well as on the faculties of the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, the Chautauqua Institute, the Mannes College of Music and the Peabody Conservatory. He has given master classes for numerous institutions, including The Guildhall School of Music in London, Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Tanglewood Music Center, the Marilyn Horne Foundation and Stanford University.
Some of his critical essays and other writings have appeared in Opera News, The Yale Review and Chamber Music magazine. He has made frequent appearances on the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts both on the opera quiz and as intermission host and performer and has the distinction of creating, narrating and performing in five intermission features devoted to art song, a first in the long history of the Met broadcasts. He has also made numerous musical appearances on live-streamed broadcasts from WQXR’s The Greene Space. He has adjudicated many prominent competitions including the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the Concert Artists Guild auditions, the Walter W. Naumberg Vocal Competition and Richard Tucker Music Foundation Auditions.
Born in upstate New York, Mr. Zeger is now a resident of Manhattan. He holds a bachelor's degree in English Literature from Harvard College, a master's degree from The Juilliard School and a doctorate from the Manhattan School of Music. His important teachers have included Morris Borenstein, Sascha Gorodnitzki and Nina Svetlanova.
For more information about Mr. Zeger’s activities, please visit his website, www.brianzeger.com.
2018 Resident Faculty
Alison Acord - Miami University
Christina Haan - Miami University
Liza Kelly - Western Kentucky University
Audrey B Luna - Miami University
Linda McAlister - Miami University
Mari Opatz-Muni - Miami University
Benjamin Smolder - Miami University
SVI 2017
June 20-July 2, 2017
Miami University
- SVI Faculty Recital, Monday, July 26, 7:30 p.m.
- SVI Recital, Saturday, July 1, 7:30 p.m.
- SVI Final Concert, Sunday, July 2, 2 p.m.
2017 Guest Faculty
(additional faculty to be announced)
Lisa Saffer
Soprano Lisa Saffer has graced opera and concert stages worldwide with her versatility, intelligence, and musicality in a range of repertoire. Ms. Saffer is recognized for her skill as an interpreter of contemporary scores and of the music of Handel. She has been particularly associated with the music of Oliver Knussen and was a participant in a landmark series of Handel recordings and performances with conductor Nicholas McGegan. She has worked with opera companies all over the world including the Metropolitan Opera, the Liceu in Barcelona, Chicago Lyric, Houston Grand Opera, Seattle Opera, Opera National de Paris, English National Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, the Netherlands Opera, and the Santa Fe Opera, and has had particularly close relationships with New York City Opera and Glimmerglass Opera.
Ms. Saffer has appeared with major symphony orchestras including those of New York, Cleveland, Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta, Boston, and Philadelphia. She has also sung with the Berlin Philharmonic, the London Sinfonietta , the Orchestra of St Luke’s and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. She loves chamber music and has worked with the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Schoenberg Ensemble and the New York Festival of Song among others. She has recordings on DGG, Harmonia Mundi, New World, Telarc and Virgin Classics. For her portrayal of Berg’s Lulu at the English National Opera, she was honored to receive the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for best vocal performance and was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award.
A native of Ann Arbor, she now makes her home in Maine, where she has built a house in Brownfield with her husband, Andy Buck, a timber framer. She teaches voice and coaches at her alma mater, the New England Conservatory. She is a voracious reader, loves to cook and is very happy to be gardening at last.
Ricky Ian Gordon
Composer Ricky Ian Gordon's songs have been performed and/or recorded by such renowned singers as Renee Fleming, Dawn Upshaw, Audra MacDonald, Kristin Chenoweth, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson and Frederica Von Stade. His opera The Grapes Of Wrath debuted at Minnesota Opera and was seen in New York at Carnegie Hall. A revised version will be presented this season at Opera Theatre of St. Louis. Other works include Morning Star at Cincinnati Opera; 27 at Opera Theatre of St. Louis; A Coffin in Egypt with Frederica Von Stade, seen at Houston Grand Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Chicago Opera Theatre and LA Opera. Orpheus and Euridice at Lincoln Center (OBIE Award); Sycamore Trees at The Signature Theatre; Green Sneakers at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival; My Life with Albertine at Playwrights Horizons; and Dream True at The Vineyard.
Mr. Gordon was a recipient of a Lincoln Center/ American Songbook Series concert devoted to his music entitled Bright Eyed Joy: The Music of Ricky Ian Gordon. It was written in the New York Times, “If the music of Ricky Ian Gordon had to be defined by a single quality, it would be the bursting effervescence infusing songs that blithely blur the lines between art song and the high-end Broadway music of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim…It’s caviar for a world gorging on pizza.”
Mr. Gordon has been the guest of many festivals, universities and conferences and received numerous honors including The Stephen Sondheim Award, The Helen Hayes Award, An Alumni Merit Award from Carnegie-Mellon University and The Gilman and Gonzalez-Falla Theatre Foundation Award. He studied composition at Carnegie Mellon University. He is currently writing operas for The Met, Houston Grand Opera and Goodman Theater. www.rickyiangordon.com
2017 Resident Faculty
Alison Acord - Miami University
Christina Haan - Miami University
Liza Kelly - Western Kentucky University
Audrey B Luna - Miami University
Linda McAlister - Miami University
Mari Opatz-Muni - Miami University
Benjamin Smolder - Miami University
SVI 2016
Miami University was pleased to host the inaugural Schmidt Vocal Institute (SVI) in June, 2016. Participants spent 12 days on campus and received instruction from the Miami University Voice Faculty as well as guest faculty from across the country. SVI helped participants develop and hone their vocal technique, diction, and stage deportment with the program culminating in two performances of solo repertoire and Musical Theater/Opera scenes.
2016 Guest Faculty
Margo Garrett
Pianist Margo Garrett is well known to audiences for her frequent performances in chamber, sonata and vocal recitals. The large roster of internationally-known artists with whom she has long performing relationships include sopranos Kathleen Battle, Barbara Bonney, the late Judith Raskin, Lucy Shelton, Dawn Upshaw, Benita Valente, mezzo Shirley Close, tenor Anthony Dean Griffey, flutist, Julia Bogorad-Kogan, violinists Jaime Laredo and Daniel Phillips, violist Paul Neubauer, and cellists Sharon Robinson, Matt Haimowitz, and the late Stephen Kates. Her recordings can be found on Albany, CRI, Delos, Deutsche Grammophon (1992 Grammy for Best Vocal Recital), Dorian, Musical Heritage Society, Nonesuch, Sony Classical and Ten Thousand Lakes. Ms. Garrett has premiered over 30 works, won an ASCAP Most Creative Programming Award (1989), headed collaborative piano programs at the University of Minnesota, The Juilliard School and New England Conservatory as well as traveled the globe giving master classes in leading schools of music and adjudicating international competitions.
Mary Ann Hart
Mezzo Soprano Mary Ann Hart is Professor of Music and Chair of the Voice Department at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music where she teaches voice and song literature. Previously she taught voice at Vassar College, and repertoire classes at the Mannes School of Music. During two decades of professional singing in New York City, Miss Hart established an exceptional reputation as a concert performer. She made her New York Philharmonic debut under the baton of Kurt Masur in his premier season as Musical Director, and has also appeared with numerous other orchestras in the United States and Canada. She toured the United States with Philip Glass’s opera Hydrogen Jukebox, and recorded that work for Nonesuch. One of four singers who recorded the complete songs of Charles Ives for Albany Records, she also has a solo recording of American songs, Permit Me Voyage, on Albany. With Robert Craft she recorded the Stravinsky Mass and Cantata for two Music Masterworks releases. A champion of song repertoire, Mary Ann Hart has been featured on the Great Singers Series in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the 92nd Street Y’s Schubertiade, and the Dame Myra Hess Concert Series in Chicago. Recital appearances have taken her to 26 American states, Austria, Germany, Rumania, Canada, and the Virgin Islands. Out of sight (but still within earshot) Mary Ann Hart sang six roles in Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortileges for the Netherlands Ballet Theatre production at the Metropolitan Opera, and did voice characterizations for the Disney animated films Beauty and the Beast and Pocahontas.
Stanford Olsen
Since his professional operatic debut there in 1986, opposite Dame Joan Sutherland in Bellini’s I Puritani, Stanford Olsen has performed more than 160 times with New York’s Metropolitan Opera. Acclaimed for his performances of the leading tenor roles in the operas of Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini, Olsen enjoys an international reputation as a Mozartean of style and elegance, cited by The New York Times in 1990 in an article entitled “A Golden Age of Mozart Tenors.” Highly regarded for his interpretations of the bel canto roles of Nemorino, Almaviva, and Arturo, Olsen has been heard in this repertoire throughout the world at venues such as San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Miami Opera, La Scala di Milano, Landestheater Stuttgart, Theatre du Chatelet, Teatro Bellini di Catania, Theatre La Monnaie, Australian Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Nederlandse Oper, Tokyo Opera City, and most other significant opera companies in the USA and Europe. His recording of the fiendishly difficult role of Argirio in Rossini’s Tancredi (Naxos/Alberto Zedda) netted a Grammy nomination. In addition to the 1989 Walter W. Naumburg Award, Olsen won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 1986, was a Richard Tucker Foundation Career Grant winner in 1989, and also has received awards from Opera America and Opera Index. He is a four-time Grammy nominee, and winner of an Emmy for the PBS broadcast of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd with the New York Philharmonic, featuring George Hearn and Patti Lupone. Olsen is currently Professor of Voice at the University of Michigan.
2016 Resident Faculty
Alison Acord - Miami University
Christina Haan - Miami University
Liza Kelly - Western Kentucky University
Audrey B Luna - Miami University
Linda McAlister - Miami University
Mari Opatz-Muni - Miami University
Benjamin Smolder - Miami University